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How we made centerpieces for Romancing the Smokies Reader/Author Event

I’m happy to share with readers and authors alike my experience doing a crafty project. You see several of the authors in my local writing group would be participating in Romancing the Smokies. We wanted some pretty centerpieces for the luncheon. Attending readers will come away with great books and lots of swag, but we also wanted these centerpieces to be prizes given away.

We set out to make many of them reminiscent of spring with bright colors. One could certainly do all of them alike, but we had the idea of naming the tables. Some readers had requested to have lunch with authors they wanted to get to know better. Instead of being seated at table 5, our guests would be seated at the pansy or daisy table.

I know you are all asking, “How is that cup suspended in air?” Hidden among the flowers is a bent-up fork that has been hot glued to the cup and saucer. On this black and white version, I covered the fork with some black satin trim.

On this centerpiece I covered the fork with some of the green leaves. Sometimes after you get all the flowers arranged they have covered up the fork nicely. But to ensure it looks magically suspended it is worth taking the time to hide it from the get go.

As with many creative endeavors, you can spend a great deal of money on supplies and tools or you can do things in an economical fashion. I’ll share with you that some things about this project are very reasonable. I found a whole bag of silverware for three bucks at a local thrift shop. They also have silverware at the Dollar Tree store.

I also found some cups and saucers for fifty cents.

For the purposes of this blog post I also wanted to show a more modern set of saucer and mug with a beachy scene. Even buying those two pieces brand new was only three dollars for both.

There was a great deal of variance in pricing at the different retail stores. I found the sea shell items at Carolina Pottery for three dollars a bag. I was later at JoAnn’s and they were the same brand, size of bag and they were asking almost double.

I also found some great artificial flowers at Dollar Tree. Don’t forget to check out the jewelry section at the thrift shops while you are looking for teacups. I found a green bracelet for a dollar that have fabulous big green pearl like baubles that went perfectly with some of the green and orange large flowers.

There is one thing you can’t skimp on: the right glue gun and glue. You can use any regular glue gun for the flowers and decorations. Gluing the fork to the saucer and cup must be the hard-drying high temp glue. The glue that is rubbery and can be peeled off can’t hold the weight or the seal with metal to glass. Here is a shot of the type of glue that worked superbly for the fork attachment.

A couple of points to keep in mind:

The thinner the fork, the easier it will be to bend.

Make sure when you glue the fork down, the weight of the cup will still be ‘over’ the saucer. Otherwise it will tip the saucer over.

Do put down some newspapers or other covering on your work area. I was being careful, but some strings of hot glue do end up threading places you didn’t intend. And when you set the gun down on occasion some glue drops may still get on the work surface.

We used regular pliers to bend the fork. Most needle nose pliers have a section close to the fulcrum that is a wire cutter also. They can also be used to snip the artificial flower pieces you need.

Place the whole arrangement on the saucers to see how it all works together BEFORE you start gluing the decorative items down.

Use a spare fork as a poker and tucker tool. All of us burned our fingers at one point or another the afternoon we put these together. It is so easy to think “I’ll just push this to get it placed correctly.” But the heat can travel through the thin layer of silk flower. I suppose a popsicle stick would work just as well and save your fingers.

Did you have a sharp enough eye to notice I used the seashell bag to look like a fish net on this one?

We all had a great time meeting at one of the authors homes to create these beauties for our readers. Just to let you know the level of difficulty here. I had never even used a hot glue gun before this day. Nor had I taken any type of flower arranging class. It was just a fun process to mix and match and see what looked good together.

We hope the winners of these get as much enjoyment from them as we had in making them for those fabulous readers!

♦♦♦♦

Felita Daniels is currently working on The Case of the Sad Sons. Follow her on Amazon to be notified when it’s released.

Felita Daniels will be attending

Romancing the Smokies

March 17-18, 2017 | Hilton Knoxville Airport, Alcoa, TN

Romancing the Smokies, a production by Sweet Romance Author Donna Wright, is a romance readers dream with an Emerald Isle event, author meet and greet, an elegant luncheon, book signing, Masquerade Ball including fun casino games, plus tons of swag and giveaways.

Here, readers get to meet their favorite authors and authors get to connect with readers. We have put together authors from every sub-genre of Romance and even some Mystery authors so you, the reader, can make a personal connection and really get to know the authors whose books you’ve loved.

I’ve made two wedding cards this month. One was for my son who got married on the 8th of August and one for my nephew who gets married next month.

Wedding Card (1)

I cut a heart from a square of white card, and 2 more hearts of the same size, giving you three hearts..
The square of card was embossed with Scruffy Little Cat – Chic Embossing Folder along with two of the hearts.
The two embossed hearts were trimmed for the overlapped front of the third heart.

The trimmed front pieces were attached to the back heart with double-sided sticky tape.
I stuck some thin lilac ribbon down the centre of some wider white ribbon and threaded this through a small pearl buckle. I wrapped the ribbon around the heart stuck the ends to the back.
I stuck some white and lilac flowers and leaves between the rear heart and the overlapped front and then stuck it at an angle on the square piece of card, slightly overlapping the aperture.

I attached more of the lilac on white ribbon to the reverse of the heart aperture and added a peel-off ‘congratulations’ to the front.

I cut and folded a piece of white card to size then layered a square of silver paper, then a layer of white card and another layer of silver paper before adding the embossed layer. I added 3 graduated stick on pearls to the bottom corner and a heart shaped stick on pearl to the ‘congratulations’ ribbon.

Wedding Card (2)

I designed and cut the front panel from a piece of white pearlised card on my scan’n’cut then pleated some white ribbon on the reverse.
I printed the greeting and names and stuck those on the reverse of the panel then added some flowers and leaves to the front.
I cut and folded a piece of white card to size then layered a square of lilac paper, then a layer of white card and another layer of lilac paper before adding the panel.

Like this:

I made two more cards today… a flowery card and a quick, masculine one.

Parasol with Flowers

I ran a strip of pale blue pearl card through my eBosser with the Chantilly Rose Tattered Lace Die. I had to run it through twice to get the length I wanted.
I repeated this with a strip of matt card, in a similar shade of blue.
From the same matt card, I cut 3 small rectangles, which I also cut with the same die. I cut them into triangles, leaving ‘tabs’ on two of them. I scored each one down the centre, along the tab and along the outermost scorelines, for a mountain fold ( /\ ) and half-way between the edge and the centre for a valley fold ( \/ ). Then I glued the tabs to the back of the centre triangle.

I scored and folded a piece of white card for the base of the birthday card
I cut a sheet of double-sided patterned paper from a First Edition Neroli paper pad in half, and then cut one piece in half again.

I stuck the quarter piece of patterned paper, with the darker side facing up, onto the card base with double-sided tape. Overlapping each previous piece, I stuck down the strip of die-cut matt card, followed by the die-cut pearl card, and finally the half piece of patterned paper, with the lighter side showing.

Folding the edges of the parasol back, from the outermost scorelines, I attached it to the card with double-sided tape.
I threaded 3 pearl beads onto a cocktail stick for the handle and stuck it to the card, along with some flowers from my stash.

Happy Birthday

I used my scan’n’cut to cut the HAPPY BIRTH’D’AY from a piece of stripey green card, printed out a picture from Pollyanna Pickering’s Britsh Wildlife DVD-ROM and glued it behind the ‘D’. Then stuck this onto a folded piece of green card, and added 3 self-adhesive pearls to the top corner.